Landscaping Services in West University Place, TX
West U lots are tight, so nothing can be left over. Every square foot has to be doing something — circulation, terrace, planting, or water — and the yard has to still feel open.
Why West U Homeowners Choose Texan Landscape Group
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West University Place is its own city, and we work to its code.
It has its own zoning ordinance — which Houston does not — and its own Development Services Office at 3826 Amherst reviewing the work. Chapter 82 governs the urban forest, backed by a Criteria Manual and a Qualified Tree List, and the city has required tree preservation plans alongside construction since 1992.
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We know the tree thresholds before we draw.
Construction-related removal needs a permit at ten inches diameter; other removal at twelve inches anywhere in the city, or ten inches in a front yard, setback or right-of-way. Replacement is calculated in inches, and for every ten replacement inches at least one four-inch or 100-gallon tree goes in. Dead, diseased and hazardous trees are exempt.
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20+ years, 1,200+ completed Houston projects, and 396+ reviews across platforms.
Chris Gosselin, our founder, holds a Construction Management degree from the University of Arkansas and still designs and builds.
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One call afterwards.
No claims portal, no ticket number, and no subcontractor who has moved on.
Landscaping Services for West University Place Lots
Narrow side yards and small rear yards make access planning, drainage, and material scale the whole problem. Getting the module of the paving right is what keeps a small yard from feeling smaller.
Our Landscape Design Process in West University Place
- 01
Site Walk and Levels
On a five thousand square foot lot the walk is about constraints — where the house sits, what the neighbours’ canopy is doing to your light, where the service access actually is, and how a machine gets to the back.
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Tree and Permit Check
We identify every tree that crosses a permit threshold before a line is drawn, and confirm what the Development Services Office will require. Where trees have to come out, the replacement inch calculation is done at design stage so it is priced, not discovered.
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Design and Drainage
Layout, materials and planting are drawn with the grade. West U spans two watersheds and drains through Poor Farm Ditch to Brays Bayou, on flat ground with very little room to solve water on the lot — so drainage is designed first and the terrace fits around it.
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Build
Access is the hard part here, not the work. We sequence excavation, base, structures, planting and systems around a lot with one narrow way in, and protect the trees and the neighbours’ frontage while we do it.
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Walkthrough and Handover
We walk the finished yard with you, hand over irrigation and lighting controls, and set out the first-year establishment programme.
Bungalow Lots, Georgian Houses
West U was built as mid-century bungalows and cottages on a uniform grid of roughly fifty by a hundred and twenty foot lots. Between 1988 and 2003 around half of every house in the city was demolished and rebuilt, largely in Georgian, and the lot sizes did not change. That is the whole design problem here in one sentence: a very large house on about five thousand square feet of ground.
What is left over has to work harder than a yard three times the size. Every square foot is doing something — circulation, terrace, planting or water — and the scale of paving modules, the size of specimen material and the height of anything vertical all get chosen against a boundary that is never far away.
Landscaping Services for West U’s 5,000 Square Foot Lots
Small lots do not mean small projects. On West U ground the services that earn their place are the ones that make a compact yard usable year-round.
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Ground that survives shade and traffic — artificial turf and landscape installation, because a small lawn overshadowed by a large house and a neighbour’s canopy rarely holds natural sod.
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Terraces sized to the lot — outdoor patios, travertine patios and tile patios, where paving module and joint pattern change how large the space reads.
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Vertical structure — pergolas, aluminum pergolas and diamond trellises and privacy screens, which do more on a tight lot than any amount of planting.
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Water off the lot — drainage solutions and irrigation systems, on flat ground with almost no fall to work with.
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Evening use — landscape lighting, which on a compact yard is the difference between a garden you look at and one you use.
Serving West University Place and Nearby
We work throughout West University Place — the two square miles between Kirby, the Union Pacific line, Bellaire Boulevard and Bissonnet — and across the surrounding inner-loop neighbourhoods.
Nearby markets with their own pages
Also served: Southside Place, Rice Village, Braeswood, Boulevard Oaks, Southampton and the Texas Medical Center area.
What West U Homeowners Say
“Great work and craftsmanship. Our sidewalk was transformed in an afternoon. Very happy with the result!”
“Texan Landscape Group did a great job on my recent landscaping project. The owner came out personally to provide the quote and take measurements. He was very professional, knowledgeable, and easy to communicate with thro…”
Hieu Vo7 months ago “Couldn’t be more proud of the work Texan Landscape group for a fine work they did with my field and the turf installation around the fiend. I recommend them to anyone interested in having their landscape done with turf.…”
thiago Reis7 months ago “I had an amazing experience with this company. They turfed and landscaped my entire backyard at my brand new home and built a modern pergola that matches the house perfectly — it looks incredible. They finished everythi…”
Chase Stock7 months ago
West University Place Landscaping FAQs
Do I need a permit to remove a tree in West University Place?
Very likely. West U is a separate city with its own urban forest code. For construction or pre-development work a permit is required at ten inches diameter and up. For any other removal the threshold is twelve inches anywhere in the city, or ten inches in a front yard, setback or right-of-way. Removal triggers a replacement-inch calculation, and for every ten replacement inches you plant at least one four-inch-diameter or 100-gallon tree. Dead, diseased and hazardous trees are exempt from replacement, and the city offers an alternative through a donation to the West University Tree Trust.
Does my contractor need to be registered with the City?
For tree removal, yes. West U requires tree removal contractors to be registered with the City and to carry liability insurance naming the City as certificate holder. That is a hard gate — an unregistered crew cannot legally take a tree down here. It is worth asking any contractor to confirm their registration status before work starts, on our jobs as much as anyone else’s.
The Poor Farm Ditch work is going on near me. Does it affect my project?
It can, on the western edge of the city. Poor Farm Ditch is the man-made channel that carries stormwater from West U, Southside Place, Bellaire and part of Houston down to Brays Bayou, and Harris County broke ground on a flood project there targeting completion around 2030. Access, parking and staging along that corridor are affected while it runs. We plan delivery and machine access around it rather than turning up and finding the street closed.
Can anything grow on a lot this size with a house this big?
Yes, but the plant list changes. On roughly five thousand square feet with a large rebuilt house, most of the usable ground is in the shade of the house itself or a neighbour’s canopy for a good part of the day, and root conflict with foundations, drives and city sidewalks is routine. Designs that work here use fewer, better specimens, shade-tolerant planting, and vertical structure to create privacy that a hedge would need ten years and three feet of width to achieve.
Why does water sit in my back yard after every storm?
Flat ground, clay beneath it and nowhere for the water to go. West U sits across the Buffalo Bayou and Brays Bayou watersheds and drains through a ditch system rather than downhill, so on a small lot with a large roof and a large drive there is a lot of runoff and very little fall to move it. The fix is designed drainage — grade, area drains and a proper outfall — rather than a single trench, and it goes in before the terrace, not after.
Do you work in Southside Place and Rice Village too?
Yes. Southside Place is its own city again, with its own requirements, and the Rice Village and Braeswood streets either side of West U are City of Houston. We check jurisdiction by address every time, because on this side of town it changes within a few hundred feet.
Written about this work.
What we have published on the kind of build shown above — what it costs, how it is put together, and what it is like to live with.
- Landscape Design · 4 min read · By Chris GosselinWhat Actually Holds Up a Tile Patio in HoustonOutdoor tile is unforgiving of what sits underneath it. The slab, the membrane, and the movement joints decide whether it lasts, not the tile itself.
- Landscape Design · 3 min read · By Tony GosselinWhat Commercial Grounds Maintenance Actually Looks Like in HoustonA tenant, customer, or board member judges a commercial property in the two seconds between the car and the door. Here is what a scheduled grounds contract actually covers, and why reporting matters as much as the mowing.
- Landscape Design · 4 min read · By Chris GosselinWhat Actually Happens on a Houston Lawn Maintenance VisitA landscape is finished the day it is installed and never again. Here is what a routine residential maintenance visit in Houston actually covers, and why the rhythm changes with the season.
Planning a project in West University?
Tell us about your West University property and what you want the yard to do. A team member will follow up within one business day.
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